Love in the valley of the shadow
January 3, 2020 at 7:57 pm (By Amba) (love stories, survivors, war)
Prisoners in Auschwitz who both survived by obtaining privileged positions (which she, at least, used to covertly help others), they were lovers in the camp. (The ordinary camp inmate was far beyond caring. Even in the less uniformly fatal Gulag, Jacques told me, the Russians said, “Zhit’ buditsh, no debat’ nye zakhochesh. You’ll live, but you won’t want to fuck.”) He was 17, she was 25; she taught him everything. They promised to meet when it was over if they made it. Shrewd survivors to the end, they both escaped Nazi death marches in the last throes of the war. He stood her up in Warsaw; years later, both of them married to others, she stood him up in New York. She was 98, bedridden, hearing- and sight-impaired, when they were at last reunited. And got to tell each other . . . well, read the story
Ambiance 